I think it's fair to say that this week has been a long one, for me.  I don't know if it's because I crammed a lot into a few days and don't have much to do today or tomorrow or what.  Regardless, today I have been very lazy and not very motivated.  I'm happy to say, though, that as long as the week has been...and as much time as I've wasted today, I think the rest of the week makes up for it.  


Last Saturday, we woke up "early" (Adam was actually up long before I was...which doesn't happen often) and took Lacy for her first hike in the mountains with her new shoes.  She did fine, except for losing one every once in a while.  We're still fine tuning the strap adjustment.  She also did a great job filling them with sand and little prickers from all the weeds she ventured through.  Hopefully they won't be too hard to clean out before the next time.  After our hike, we did a little quick shopping in Lancaster before we had our friends, Luke and Katie Goossen, over for dinner.  It's always nice to have dinner guests....especially ones that don't mind that we are a far cry from sophisticated or winning any awards for hospitality (I'm working on that :)).  We grilled out, talked, ate the amazing dessert Katie made, and generally had a good time.  We enjoy the kind of company that surprises you when you realize how late it's gotten!


Sunday, we spent a good portion of the day in Palmdale.  We got to witness Elizabeth and Kevin Daughery's son Micah's baptism at church (and will get to see Todd and Sarah's daughter Ari's this Sunday).  After all that, we headed to the mall, initially to get our tires rotated and to get an alignment, which turned into getting all 4 tires replaced and balanced and an alignment.  It was an expensive (and long) trip to Sears, but hopefully the tires will last longer, this time.  In the meantime, I got my quarterly hair cut and a curling iron in an attempt to  someday be able to duplicate what the stylist did (yeah right.)  Once we got home, Adam and I headed out to the ball field to try and hone our skills before our league starts up.  Yes, you heard that right, Adam and I joined a softball league with our church.  We'll be in the co-ed league to, as Todd says,  be a light instead of preaching to the choir in the church league.  It makes me a little nervous to be in a more competitive league, but Todd seems pretty comfortable with us being a light that's not good at softball :-p.


Monday, I dedicated the day to relationship building.  My new friend Marci (also from Illinois...Collinsville, actually) was gracious enough to drive me to my doctor's appointment in Palmdale.  To make the trip a little more worthwhile for both of us, we left a little early to have lunch at Quiznos.  After finding ourselves at a Quiznos "coming soon" and one that no longer existed, we turned in the towel and headed to Wendy's, instead.  It was no Quiznos lunch, but it was really good to spend time with Marci and her new daughter Aly, regardless.  Marci ended up dropping me off at Heidi's house, since we were overdue for a hangout session.  Heidi was working on "a cake for a friend's anniversary."  As was later prematurely revealed to me by her son Jack, it was a belated gift for Adam and I.  It was delicious and we were touched that she thought of us.  


Last Friday, I got an email from Todd telling me that him and his wife Sarah had been discussing the possibility of putting on an art camp, this summer, and asking me if I'd like to be involved with helping make that happen.  Of course, I jumped at the opportunity, and because of my lack of self-transportation during the day, Tuesday was filled with tidying up the house in preparation for the brainstorming and planning meeting that ended up being at our dining room table.  I'm really excited to see how this all plays out.  The plan is to do a three day "camp" in the evenings to teach kids about printmaking while tying it into a theme that teaches them a little about God, as well.  We'll be teaching them several different methods of printmaking, and Todd will be doing a short devotional each night.  At the end of the 3 days, we'll have a public reception at The Well to see some of the best of what each child has done.  It's exciting to me to be able to use my degree to do something productive :).  I also quickly set to work, Wednesday afternoon, on the promo video that we'll play at church and possibly distribute to other places interested in viewing it.  Here is the finished product, for your viewing pleasure.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out:



Create: An Art Experience For Kids from Todd Niebling on Vimeo.


Last night, Adam and I picked up Heidi and headed to church for a music ministry meeting.  Our current worship leader is leaving in a few weeks since her husband is getting re-stationed in Montarey (We'll miss you, Will and Camille!).  While I'm sad to see them go, I am excited for the added opportunities to play more piano at church.  I'll also have a couple of weeks in the next couple months that I'll be singing, as well.  It'll be pretty busy for all us musicians while we're sans a leader, but I'm looking forward to the added effort to pull together and make things happen.


So that brings me back to today.  It's been probably a good hour or so since I started this, but in the meantime, I've been a bit more productive than I was when I started out.  Not only have I accomplished yet another journal entry, but I have managed to chat with Dan Davis, Amanda Moloney, Christy Starr, and Karimah Salaam.  Adam should be calling, soon, as well, to report his departure from work.  Maybe I'll take this opportunity, then, to actually get dressed and brush my hair :-p.  Later!